Department Editor: Scott Jenkins

Burner Operating
Characteristics*
B
urners are critical for the successful op-
eration of industrial furnaces. Presented
here is a set of equations that can be
used to calculate characteristics of burner
operation, including ame length, ame di-
ameter, ignitability and ameout conditions.
Equations are based on pre-mix burners
operating at atmospheric pressure and r-
ing natural gas only. Premix burners create
short and compact ames compared to raw
gas burners, and are designed to function
with fuel-gas mixtures that have consistent
specic gravity and composition.
Burner requirements
For direct-red heaters to function correctly,
burners must be capable of providing suf-
cient heat liberation from the fuel to meet
heater processing requirements based on
the lower heating value (LHV) of the fuel. A
fuels LHV can be dened as the amount of
heat produced by combusting a specied vol-
ume, and returning the combustion products
to 150C. For the heater to operate at the
design process owrate, the burners need to
provide the heat necessary to maintain pro-
cess uid temperature and meet vaporization
requirements at the heating coil outlet.
The number, size and placement of
burners must allow each coil to operate
at the same design outlet temperature
Design tube-metal temperature cannot
be exceeded at any point on the coils
Burner size must allow an outlet veloc-
ity that does not result in malfunction
over the range of ow conditions
Burner ame length should be less than
rebox height (for vertical cylindrical
heaters) or less than rebox length (for
end-wall-red heaters)
Excessive ame height and diameter
should be avoided to prevent ame
impingement on tubes
Burner spacing should be sufcient
to allow burner-to-burner, as well as
burner-to-tube clearance
The following equations can help establish
optimal burner diameter:
(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Burner clearance
Establishing burner-to-burner clear-
ance and burner spacing should be
based on maximum burner ame
diameter. Further, burner ame
diameter should be evaluated at
maximum burner-ame length.
Sufcient burner-to-burner, outside
diameter clearance should take into
account the placement of structural
elements between burners.
Sufcient burner-to-burner clear-
ance prevents interference between
the ame bodies and unburned
fuel cores generated by adjacent
burners, which results in the absence
of unburned fuel within the burner
ame when maximum ame length
is reached. Burner center-to-center
spacing should be at least one fully
combusted ame diameter.
Clearance between the burner-
ame (at maximum diameter) and
the outside diameter of tubular
heating surfaces should be set
such that burner-to-tube ame
impingement is avoided. Doing so
will prevent tube damage due to
overheating and will make best use
of heating surfaces.
Flameout
At high burner velocities, ame
loss can occur if the heat gain due
to burner ignition is less than the
heat loss from the burner ame.
Burner velocities may be pushed
well above that used in normal
heater operation in an effort to
achieve higher heater capacity. Aside from
ame loss while the heater is in operation,
ameout can also be characterized by dif-
culty maintaining a stable ame at startup,
or an inability to ignite the burner. The
following equations can help predict the
circumstances under which amout condi-
tions might occur:
(5)

(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)

Flame velocity
The heat generated by combustion is de-
pendent on the ame propagation velocity.
In a situation with 0% excess air, the ratio
of fuel-to-fuel+air is about 0.1. In that case,
evaluation of the ame propagation velocity
is straightforward. However, at fuel-to-
fuel+air ratios higher or lower than 0.1, it is
more difcult. The following equations can
help predict ame propagation velocity in
those cases:
(10)
(11)
(12)
References
1. Cross, A., Fired-Heater Burner Performance,
Chem. Eng., April 2008, pp. 4447.
NOMENCLATURE
Q
lib heater
= Heater liberation, Btu/h
N
b
= Number of burners
D
b
= Burner diameter, ft
V
b
= Burner exit velocity, ft/s
C
fuel
= Fuel, ft
3
LHV = Lower heating value of fuel, Btu/lb
C
air+fuel
= Volume of air and fuel mixture, ft
3
SV
fuel
= Specific volume of fuel, ft
3
/lb
D
f max
= Maximum flame diameter, ft
L
f
= Flame length, ft
SV
flame
= Specific volume of flame, ft
3
/lb
V
f
= Flame propagation velocity, ft/s
Q
gain
= Burner heat gain, Btu/h
Q
loss
= Burner heat loss, Btu/h
A
s
= Flame front area, ft
2

(HTC)
c
(HTC)
f
, (HTC)
r
= Natural convective, forced-
convective, and radiative heat transfer
coefficients, respectively, Btu/h-ft
2
-F
T
flame
= Flame temperature, R
T
surr
= Surrounding temperature, R
E
g
= Flame emissivity
C
p
= Gas specific heat, Btu/lb-F
A = Frequency factor in the Arrhenius equation
H = Heat of activation, Btu/lb-mol R
R = Gas constant, 1.987 Btu/lb-mol R
T = Gas Temperature, R
dC
m
/dt = Fuel concentration change, mol per ft
3
/s
K = Reaction velocity constant, s
1
W
f
= Fuel, lb/h
*The text was adapted from the article Fired-Heater Burner Performance, by Alan Cross. It appeared in
the April 2008 issue of Chemical Engineering.